Easter Island (1 Viewer)

[krista4]

Worth the trip? What about Santiago and the wine country of Chile?

 

[AcerFC]

Worth the trip? What about Santiago and the wine country of Chile?

Is this the one with the statues?

 

[saintfool]

Worth the trip? What about Santiago and the wine country of Chile?

easter island? galapagos? we're considering chile, buenos aires and back to peru this summer actually.

 

[Osaurus]

It's pretty to go there. Rapa Nui is a pretty remote location. Had a chance to go during my undergrad and would have had to pay over $3,000 in arifare to get there. That money was already set aside for beer and pizza.

ETA: Looks like airfare is down to $1800 out of Tampa now. Moai are dope!

 

[parasaurolophus]

hey dum dum. you give me gum gum.

 

[krista4]

Worth the trip? What about Santiago and the wine country of Chile?

Is this the one with the statues?

So cool-looking.

 

[krista4]

Worth the trip? What about Santiago and the wine country of Chile?

easter island? galapagos? we're considering chile, buenos aires and back to peru this summer actually.

I'm looking at the first couple of weeks in September. Was considering Macchu Picchu, too, but depends on if you-know-who has quit smoking before then. If not, I thought of Chile/Easter Island as an alternative.

 

[SuperJohn96]

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

 

[krista4]

It's pretty to go there. Rapa Nui is a pretty remote location. Had a chance to go during my undergrad and would have had to pay over $3,000 in arifare to get there. That money was already set aside for beer and pizza.ETA: Looks like airfare is down to $180 out of Tampa now. Moai are dope!

Wow, that's amazing. I hadn't looked at the fares to Santiago yet, but the Santiago to Easter Island is about $500 roundtrip for the dates I wanted. Not so bad.

 

[Osaurus]

Typo $1800 not 180...fixed in original post

 

[Osaurus]

Studied moai when I was in school. They would roll these bad boys into place and then "power" them up when they inserted the eyes. The islanders call this "mana". Not too many statues still have their eyes. If I remember correctly. many of them were destroyed during periods of unrest.

 

[krista4]

Typo $1800 not 180...fixed in original post

I read it at $1800 anyway.

 

[El Floppo]

dot. (never going to happen for me, but I can dream).

 

[krista4]

That's the place with all the statues of Scottie Pippen, right? I've always wanted to go there.

Never would have thought of that, but now that you mention it...

 

[Maroney=Sped]

That's the place with all the statues of Scottie Pippen, right? I've always wanted to go there.

And George Muresan. Don't forget George.

 

[Jack Burton]

Worth the trip? What about Santiago and the wine country of Chile?

Is this the one with the statues?

So cool-looking.

They are great.Those statues were carved out of the sides of cliffs/mountains and then dragged to the shores. Saw it on OLN and was blown away by that fact.

 

[Debbie Downer]

Worth the trip? What about Santiago and the wine country of Chile?

I went twice last year.

 

[El Floppo]

Worth the trip? What about Santiago and the wine country of Chile?

I'm still waiting for a wine discussion to come of this.

 

[johnnycakes]

Why not do tour Villa Grimaldi and other relics of the Pinochet regime?

 

[Rohn Jambo]

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

LINK

 

[pittstownkiller]

Worth the trip? What about Santiago and the wine country of Chile?

Is this the one with the statues?

So cool-looking.

They are great.Those statues were carved out of the sides of cliffs/mountains and then dragged to the shores. Saw it on OLN and was blown away by that fact.

It is amazing what people can do without FBG in their day.

 

[cstu]

Studied moai when I was in school. They would roll these bad boys into place and then "power" them up when they inserted the eyes. The islanders call this "mana". Not too many statues still have their eyes. If I remember correctly. many of them were destroyed during periods of unrest.

Or stolen by visiting wizards.

 

[yawyaw]

Rongorongo!

 

[Otis]

Worth the trip? What about Santiago and the wine country of Chile?

Is this the one with the statues?

So cool-looking.

Always wanted to go.

 

[Otis]

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

LINK

Woah. Very cool.

 

[cstu]

Rats, not humans, to blame for the destruction of the trees on Easter Island.

 

[cstu]

Another example of the tremendous waste of human effort in the name of religion. But like the pyramids they are pretty cool.

 

[yawyaw]

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

LINK

Woah. Very cool.

I thought we already knew they had torsos. I mean, look at this photo. A whole row of them with torsos out on display for hundreds of years.http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/25/article-0-0027F23300000258-698_634x407.jpg

Versus this "shocking" discovery of torsos buried. I don't get the surprise here.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/25/article-0-134A21D3000005DC-603_634x937.jpg

 

[El Floppo]

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

LINK

Woah. Very cool.

I thought we already knew they had torsos. I mean, look at this photo. A whole row of them with torsos out on display for hundreds of years.http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/25/article-0-0027F23300000258-698_634x407.jpg

Versus this "shocking" discovery of torsos buried. I don't get the surprise here.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/25/article-0-134A21D3000005DC-603_634x937.jpg

But they have torsos.

 

[Osaurus]

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

LINK

Woah. Very cool.

I thought we already knew they had torsos. I mean, look at this photo. A whole row of them with torsos out on display for hundreds of years.http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/25/article-0-0027F23300000258-698_634x407.jpg

Versus this "shocking" discovery of torsos buried. I don't get the surprise here.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/25/article-0-134A21D3000005DC-603_634x937.jpg

But they have torsos.

But where's the mana?

 

[DocHolliday]

Rats, not humans, to blame for the destruction of the trees on Easter Island.

In the book Collapse, humans are to blame for destroying their environment (and themselves) in places like Mexico and Easter Island. Rats may have been mentioned as a possible contributing factor to man as the cause though on Easter Island. I remember reading that the moai were thought to be targets of oppposing tribes on the island. Tough to figure the thought process of the people of Easter Island or what really caused the demise of those people.

 

[cstu]

Rats, not humans, to blame for the destruction of the trees on Easter Island.

In the book Collapse, humans are to blame for destroying their environment (and themselves) in places like Mexico and Easter Island. Rats may have been mentioned as a possible contributing factor to man as the cause though on Easter Island. I remember reading that the moai were thought to be targets of oppposing tribes on the island. Tough to figure the thought process of the people of Easter Island or what really caused the demise of those people.

The people certainly contributed to deforestation, but rats had no natural predators on the island and can grow to massive numbers very quickly. I can easily imagine rats in that situation eating every seed on the idea until there were no more trees left. There were millions of trees on Easter Island and somewhere around 20,000 people so it's unlikely that without the destruction caused by rats that humans alone would have killed off the trees.

 

[EYLive]

Another example of the tremendous waste of human effort in the name of religion. But like the pyramids they are pretty cool.

Maybe you're looking at it backwards.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Hidden treat: The Easter Island heads also have BODIESThe enduring image in the public's mind of the mysterious heads on Easter Island is simply that - heads.

So it comes as quite a shock to see the heads from another angle - and discover that they have full bodies, extending down many, many feet into the ground of the island.

The Easter Island Statue Project has been carefully excavating two of 1,000-plus statues on the islands - doing their best to uncover the secrets of the mysterious stones, and the people who built them.


Project director Jo Anne Van Tilburg said: 'Our EISP excavations recently exposed the torsos of two 7m tall statues.

'Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of visitors to the island have been astonished to see that, indeed, Easter Island statues have bodies!

'More important, however, we discovered a great deal about the Rapa Nui techniques of ancient engineering.'

Among their discoveries, the team have discovered:

• The dirt and detritus partially burying the statues was washed down from above and not deliberately placed there to bury, protect, or support the statues
• The statues were erected in place and stand on stone pavements
• Post holes were cut into bedrock to support upright tree trunks
• Rope guides were cut into bedrock around the post holes
• Posts, ropes, stones, and different types of stone tools were all used to carve and raise the statues upright

The remote island - one of the remotest in the world, tucked away in the South Pacific Ocean - was once home to a Polynesian population, whose history remains mysterious.

They likely sailed to the islands in canoes - a 1,500-mile journey over the open waters, and then, once they landed, they began relentessly carving the stone statues.

This led to their own downfall: By the time Europeans discovered the island in the 1700s, the population had decimated nearly all the trees in the island to help with the statue construction, and the knock-on effect on the island's ecology led to their decline.


The team also discovered that ceremonies were certainly associated with the statues.

On the project website, Van Tilburg said: 'We found large quantities of red pigment, some of which may have been used to paint the statues.

'Finally, and perhaps most poignantly, we found in the pavement under one statue a single stone carved with a crescent symbol said to represent a canoe, or vaka.

'The backs of both statues are covered with petroglyphs, many of which are also vaka. A direct connection between the vaka symbol and the identity of the artist or group owning the statue is strongly suggested.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2149846/Hidden-treat-The-Easter-Island-heads-BODIES.html

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Rats, not humans, to blame for the destruction of the trees on Easter Island.

In the book Collapse, humans are to blame for destroying their environment (and themselves) in places like Mexico and Easter Island. Rats may have been mentioned as a possible contributing factor to man as the cause though on Easter Island. I remember reading that the moai were thought to be targets of oppposing tribes on the island. Tough to figure the thought process of the people of Easter Island or what really caused the demise of those people.

The people certainly contributed to deforestation, but rats had no natural predators on the island and can grow to massive numbers very quickly. I can easily imagine rats in that situation eating every seed on the idea until there were no more trees left.There were millions of trees on Easter Island and somewhere around 20,000 people so it's unlikely that without the destruction caused by rats that humans alone would have killed off the trees.

New study:

The results showed that settlements in areas of the island where rain was either scarce or excessive were short-lived and abandoned prior to the arrival of the Europeans -- suggesting climate challenges and soil overuse played a role in driving out some Easter Islanders.

"When we evaluate the length of time that the land was used based on the age distribution of each site's obsidian flakes, which we used as an index of human habitation, we find that the very dry area and the very wet area were abandoned before European contact," explained Oliver Chadwick, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

But settlements where rainfall was moderate persisted longer, long enough to greet European explorers and colonizers.

"The area that had relatively high nutrients and intermediate rainfall maintained a robust population well after European contact," Chadwick confirmed.

This suggests Easter Islanders living in the nutrient-rich central portions of the island were able to sustain populations, even under threat of European diseases like smallpox.

"The pullback from the marginal areas suggests that the Rapa Nui couldn't continue to maintain the food resources necessary to keep the statue builders in business," Chadwick concluded. "So we see the story as one of pushing against constraints and having to pull back rather than one of violent collapse."

The new study was published this week in the journal PNAS.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2015/01/27/New-study-helps-sort-out-Easter-Island-mystery/6971422391880/#ixzz3QDSc5BiI

I don't think I realizes that Easter Island's population lasted past teh time of European exploration and even encountered some.

 

[JoeSteeler]

Bump

GF mentioned to me yesterday she would like us to go to Easter Island...which FBG have been there?

 

[Osaurus]

So expensive to go there.

 

[gianmarco]

So expensive to go there.

$180 isn't bad.

 

[Osaurus]

$180 isn't bad.

From where?

 

[gianmarco]

From where?

Tampa, of course.

 

[Osaurus]

Tampa, of course.

Lol..sure 

 

[JoeSteeler]

So expensive to go there.

looks like about $2,000 round trip from Cleveland for airfare

 

[Osaurus]

$2,500 one way from Tampa